Electronic Payments--in Stores and Supermarkets

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布

(1) Claire Cain Miller, Payment Method Bypasses the Wallet. New York Times, May 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/technology/24pay.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=wallet%20name&st=cse

Note:
(a) Square, Inc: Headquarters San Francisco, CA; Launched 2010.
Wikipedia

Its web site is
www.saqureup.com

* square (vi): "to settle matters; especially : to pay the bill"  www.m-w.com
* "square up": "Settle a bill or debt, as in The others went to get the car while he squared up with the waiter. This idiom derives from square in the sense of 'set straight.' [Early 1800s]"
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer (1997).
http://dictionary.reference.com/idioms/square+up

(b) I did not quite understand what the report says. So go directly to Square web site, whose mid-section is about "Card Case" app. Click and watch the video (whose second half is about a previous innovation: credit card reader attached to a smartphone).


(2) Charles Robertson, Letter to editor: How Kenya Is Streets Ahead of Apple, Financial Times, Mar 24, 2011
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63984fc8-8593-11e0-ae32-00144feabdc0.html

My comment:
(a) To read this short letter requires registration.
(b) The letter talks about "Kenya's M-Pesa system [that] is Sim-based"--"[j]ust one example of Africa using the fruits of technology to leapfrog the west."
(c) M-Pesa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa
(M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money; The development was initially sponsored by the UK-based Department for International Development (DFID) in 2003–2007)

(i) For SIM, see Subscriber Identity Module
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscriber_Identity_Module
(ii) Safaricom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safaricom
(a leading mobile network operator in Kenya)

Quote: "It was formed in 1997 as a fully owned subsidiary of Telkom Kenya. In May 2000, Vodafone group Plc of the United Kingdom, the world's largest telecommunication company, acquired a 40% stake and management responsibility for the company.

(d) Press release: Safaricom and Vodafone launch M-PESA, a new mobile payment service. Vodafone, Mar 13, 2007.
http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/press/group_press_releases/2007/safaricom_and_vodafone.html

Quote:

"M-PESA is aimed at mobile customers who do not have a bank account * * * All they need to do is register at an authorised M-PESA Agent by providing their Safaricom mobile number and their identification card. Once registered, customers can:
•Put money into their account by depositing cash at a local Agent
•Send money to other mobile phone users by SMS instruction, even if they are not Safaricom subscribers.
•Withdraw cash at local Agent"


(3) Ann Zimmerman, Check Out the Future of Shopping; Shaving time off the weekly grocery run to keep consumers in stores and spending. Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576329253050637400.html
(a mobile device: Motorol-made in use at about half of Ahold USA's Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets in the Northeast; Home Depot; Starbucks; Nordstrom; some Target stores)


--